TrainingPeaks Virtual (TPV) Chat Zone

[ColinJ]

I was thinking that the terrain used in TPV is quite interesting and was wondering if someone had designed it from scratch, but then I discovered this...

TrainingPeaks Virtual (formerly indieVelo) uses Mussau Island, located in Papua New Guinea, as its core fictionalized training world. The platform overlays its virtual environment on the actual geographical coordinates of the island (-1.37°S to -1.49°S, 149.57°E to 149.69°E).


I did another zone 2 session this evening. I had been thinking that my HRM was displaying some weird variations in pulse rate but then I realised that they were triggered by the way that I was breathing. My heart was beating steadily at 130 bpm when I was taking rapid, shallow breaths. I could quickly lower that by 5-10 bpm just by concentrating on taking slower, deeper breaths!

 

[ColinJ]

@Norry1 (or anybody else who knows more than me!)...

I was just looking on Training Peaks at my power data for an interval session that I did on the turbo trainer. I did the intervals at 190 W but the TP analytics page is showing them to have been done at only 165 W! It is correctly showing the recovery intervals at 120 W though.

I cocked up a ramp test a couple of weeks ago so TP thinks that my FTP is 165 W, but it is actually nearer 200 W. (I did a hilly local ride in October and averaged 160 W for 4 hours, so 165 W is way low.)

Is TP clipping my power numbers because it thinks that I couldn't possibly have actually done 4 x 4 minutes at 115% of what it has calculated my FTP to be?

I am tempted to put my CAAD5 on the turbo trainer so I can compare the power data from its pedals with the Victory trainer's data.

 

[Norry1]

@Norry1 (or anybody else who knows more than me!)...

I was just looking on Training Peaks at my power data for an interval session that I did on the turbo trainer. I did the intervals at 190 W but the TP analytics page is showing them to have been done at only 165 W! It is correctly showing the recovery intervals at 120 W though.

I cocked up a ramp test a couple of weeks ago so TP thinks that my FTP is 165 W, but it is actually nearer 200 W. (I did a hilly local ride in October and averaged 160 W for 4 hours, so 165 W is way low.)

Is TP clipping my power numbers because it thinks that I couldn't possibly have actually done 4 x 4 minutes at 115% of what it has calculated my FTP to be?

I am tempted to put my CAAD5 on the turbo trainer so I can compare the power data from its pedals with the Victory trainer's data.

Where did you get the workout from?

 

[ColinJ]

Where did you get the workout from?

I took a hilly 3 km loop on some of my local hills and saved it as a GPX file which I uploaded to TrainingPeaks to use as the basis for a training 'event'. (The clunky way needed to make it available in TPV!)

I scheduled the event for later in the evening. When I got on the bike I rode the event solo as a freeride, flipping the power levels manually using cruise control.

I did a 12 minute warm-up lap, gradually increasing the cruising power from 100 W to 120 W.

Each lap starts at the bottom of the climb. When I got to that to that each time for 4 laps I flicked the cruising power to 190 W and did 1 km up the climb at that power.

TPV helpfully generates a big boulder at the side of the road at 1 km so I climb to that, which takes 4-ish minutes at that power, then I reduce the power to 120 W to ride over the crest of the hill and descend back round to the start of the climb.

I did climb #6 at an intermediate power, reduced to 120W for the descent and climb #7.

Once the final climb was finished, I gradually reduced the power to 100 W.

The ride went exactly as planned. (I really like cruise control!) The analytics showed exactly what I had been doing everywhere, except that my 190 W efforts were displayed as 165 W, the incorrect value my botched ramp test had given me a couple of days before.

 

[Norry1]

I took a hilly 3 km loop on some of my local hills and saved it as a GPX file which I uploaded to TrainingPeaks to use as the basis for a training 'event'. (The clunky way needed to make it available in TPV!)

I scheduled the event for later in the evening. When I got on the bike I rode the event solo as a freeride, flipping the power levels manually using cruise control.

I did a 12 minute warm-up lap, gradually increasing the cruising power from 100 W to 120 W.

Each lap starts at the bottom of the climb. When I got to that to that each time for 4 laps I flicked the cruising power to 190 W and did 1 km up the climb at that power.

TPV helpfully generates a big boulder at the side of the road at 1 km so I climb to that, which takes 4-ish minutes at that power, then I reduce the power to 120 W to ride over the crest of the hill and descend back round to the start of the climb.

I did climb #6 at an intermediate power, reduced to 120W for the descent and climb #7.

Once the final climb was finished, I gradually reduced the power to 100 W.

The ride went exactly as planned. (I really like cruise control!) The analytics showed exactly what I had been doing everywhere, except that my 190 W efforts were displayed as 165 W, the incorrect value my botched ramp test had given me a couple of days before.

No idea then - I'd raise a support call.

 

[ColinJ]

I found out that I had missed a couple of firmware updates for my Victory trainer so I just uploaded the latest version.

I haven't tested it yet but there was mention of improvements to cadence monitoring. I have had problems with cadences over 110 rpm not registering properly so that is something that I will check in my next session.

After doing the update I did a turbo spin-down calibration. I don't know if the calibration was already okay, but it definitely should be now. I might stick my power meter pedal on to check.

I have had a bad winter, suffering from lurgy after lurgy, so my ambitious winter turbo plans were wrecked but despite that I have still clocked up nearly 1,200 virtual km so my investment in the hardware and my TPV subscription are paying off.

 

[Norry1]

I found out that I had missed a couple of firmware updates for my Victory trainer so I just uploaded the latest version.

I haven't tested it yet but there was mention of improvements to cadence monitoring. I have had problems with cadences over 110 rpm not registering properly so that is something that I will check in my next session.

After doing the update I did a turbo spin-down calibration. I don't know if the calibration was already okay, but it definitely should be now. I might stick my power meter pedal on to check.

I have had a bad winter, suffering from lurgy after lurgy, so my ambitious winter turbo plans were wrecked but despite that I have still clocked up nearly 1,200 virtual km so my investment in the hardware and my TPV subscription are paying off.

Glad you're back on it. TPV looks like it has made loads of good updates. I've not been on it for ages as I've been using TrainerRoad and that is beeter integrated with Zwift.

 

[ColinJ]

I haven't tested it yet but there was mention of improvements to cadence monitoring. I have had problems with cadences over 110 rpm not registering properly so that is something that I will check in my next session.

Nope, it still does it! I got the rpm to about 110, then the number shown on TPV suddenly halved and then went to zero. It takes a couple of seconds at a much lower cadence for it to correct itself.

I am assuming that the problem is with my JetBlack Victory trainer. Would someone with a different type of trainer please confirm that TPV has no problem with (say) 120-130 rpm?

 

[Norry1]

Nope, it still does it! I got the rpm to about 110, then the number shown on TPV suddenly halved and then went to zero. It takes a couple of seconds at a much lower cadence for it to correct itself.

I am assuming that the problem is with my JetBlack Victory trainer. Would someone with a different type of trainer please confirm that TPV has no problem with (say) 120-130 rpm?

Not been on lately, but I never had an issue with 130+ RPM on TPV.

 

[ColinJ]

Not been on lately, but I never had an issue with 130+ RPM on TPV.

Sounds like JetBlack still have work to do then!

I will contact them about it

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

Got an email from Garmin saying that they have aquired Training Peaks. Wonder how that will change things, if at all, going forward.

 

[spokeweasel]

Got an email from Garmin saying that they have aquired Training Peaks. Wonder how that will change things, if at all, going forward.

https://www.garmin.com/en-US/newsro...-training-platforms-for-athletes-and-coaches/

that’s the link in my email.

 

[ColinJ]

It was raining on and off here today so I thought that I would stay in and have a go with the latest version of TPV.

I could see some improvements since the last time that I used it, but a more thorough test would be needed to really see what has improved.

I decided to use a test route that I saved months ago, based on the famous local climb of Cragg Vale. My route features a long warm-up before the climb is reached. TPV creates virtual countryside based on an imported GPX file. The terrain and road course are pretty accurate, though obviously that's it - no buildings etc.

I was quite impressed with what TPV came up with. I could usually recognise where I was supposed to be just from the way the road meandered about between the simulated hills.

Here is part of my warm up...

And this is the actual scene lifted from Streetview...

You should be able to that the hills are a similar shape? (TPV does smooth them off a bit though.)

I had to abandon my test ride due to a combination of overeating and overheating! I was feeling pretty good after my 100-160 W warm-up, but after some time at 180 W I suddenly started bucketing sweat and feeling sick. I should have waited another couple of hours before starting, and turned my fan up before I got too hot!

 

[ColinJ]

I did another session yesterday evening. There have been some major updates to the TPV scenery since I last used it... I was terrified having to cycle under huge pillars of rock towering over the road at a crazy angle!

I think that there should be randomness added into some of the animations. On lap 2 some roadside goats were doing exactly what they were doing on lap 1! Ditto a biplane flying back and forth.

I am rather peeved that it has been declared that no changes can be made to provide lower gearing. The reason given was that smart turbo trainers are not good at providing low resistance equivalent to riding in a very low gear. I would perhaps accept that explanation were it not for the fact that doing a warm up in erg mode at a very low power (90 watts, say) works perfectly well, and does provide a very low resistance! The only way that I will be able to do steep climbs is to turn the trainer slope difficulty setting down, which destroys the realism of the climbing.

Cornering still looks crap! I have seen other platforms that make it look natural. I would like that sorted out.

I still like using TPV and my Victory trainer. I now own a Concept 2 rowing machine too. Hard turbo sessions will be enough in themselves. Yesterday's turbo session was only 600 kJ of zone 2 though, so I got on the C2 afterwards and did a 2,000 metre row. As my rowing style and fitness get better I intend to build up to post-turbo 5,000 metre rows.

 

[ColinJ]

The only way that I will be able to do steep climbs is to turn the trainer slope difficulty setting down, which destroys the realism of the climbing.

Ha - I tried that this evening... It was ridiculously bad!!!

I wanted to do the flat/downhill bits at a cadence of about 90 rpm and a power of about 130 watts. That was fine.

The plan was to do the steeper climbs at about 75 rpm and at around 150 watts so they did feel like climbs, but didn't push me too hard. I reduced the trainer slope difficulty to 33% and set off. As soon as I hit a decent climb I was in my bottom virtual gear, my cadence fell to 50 rpm, and my power was spiking to well over 200 watts. It felt like I was riding my old singlespeed bike!

I had to revert to using cruise control and adjust the power in that to meet my targets, and pedal at the cadences that I had pre-chosen.

Yesterday's turbo session was only 600 kJ of zone 2 though, so I got on the C2 afterwards and did a 2,000 metre row. As my rowing style and fitness get better I intend to build up to post-turbo 5,000 metre rows.

I did 620 kJ on the turbo this evening, about 10 minutes quicker than the previous session, and I could tell as soon as I got on the C2... I think it will be some time before post-turbo 5 km rows are on the menu!